Steve Ewen: If you care about lacrosse, start caring about the Vancouver Stealth

NLL team carries a 2-0 record into its home opener on Saturday versus the Calgary Roughnecks

A sports reporter walks into a bar.

Fellow patron knows him. Fellow patron is a lacrosse fan. Fellow patron hassles him about the lack of coverage for the Minto Cup, Canada’s Junior A club championship tournament.

Reporter puts his hand up. Patron pauses. Reporter asks how many Vancouver Stealth games he’s been to. Patron pauses. He’s been to three over the three winters the National Lacrosse League team has been playing at the Langley Events Centre, he says.

That’s the punchline. And, no, it’s not the least bit funny.

Lacrosse people regularly talk about the need to support their sport. They could have a patent on #growthegame on social media.

If lacrosse’s popularity is going to skyrocket, it needs to get on national television regularly. The only way lacrosse gets on national TV regularly is via the NLL. The only way the NLL gets on national TV regularly is with successful franchises from east to west, including places like Metro Vancouver.

You see what we’re getting at?

Lacrosse doesn’t have an image problem. It has a lack of awareness problem. It needs the mass appeal of TV. You want lacrosse to succeed, you need the Vancouver Stealth to succeed.

There are flaws with the franchise. They were a combined 14-40 their first three years based out of the LEC, missing the playoffs each campaign.

You can see many of the same players you see at a NLL game for cheaper in the summer at a Western Lacrosse Association game. The parking at the LEC can be a pain and Langley can seem like a long haul for people in Vancouver.

You can question that why, in a hotbed of lacrosse like the Lower Mainland, the Stealth have to import coach Jamie Batley from Peterborough. And, for lacrosse to grow, there’s a school of thought that teams like the Stealth need to attract non-lacrosse fans.

All fair comment, we suggest.

The greatest truth of all, though, is that the Lower Mainland has enough people who should give a darn about lacrosse that the Stealth should have zero trouble filling the LEC with 5,000 fans a game.

The Stealth averaged 3,758 fans a night last year at the LEC, which lists capacity at 5,276. The nine-team league averaged 9,152, with four teams over the 10,000 mark, highlighted by the 15,833 from the Buffalo Bandits.

The plus side this year for the Stealth is that they’re off to a 2-0 start for the first time since moving to the LEC from Everett, Wash., and, by various accounts, Batley is pushing an aggressive, uptempo style on both offence and defence that should be attractive to fans.

They won both ends of a tricky weekend road doubleheader in Calgary and Colorado despite missing two of their more celebrated offensive players, Garrett Billings (groin) and Cory Conway (shoulder), to injury.

There’s reason to give it a look, one would think, starting with Saturday’s home opener against the Calgary Roughnecks. It’s up to you, of course. If you care about lacrosse, though, you need to understand the consequences.

NEXT GAME

The unbeaten Vancouver Stealth return to Langley Events Centre Saturday for their NLL home opener.

Three for thee inside the box

The Vancouver Stealth carry a 2-0 record into their NLL home opener against the Calgary Roughnecks (0-1) on Saturday night at Langley Events Centre. Here are three things to watch for:

1. Calgary starting goalie Frankie Scigliano sat out Vancouver’s 12-11 win in the Roughnecks’ home opener last Friday because of a one-game suspension for his role in a netminder brawl with Aaron Bold of the Saskatchewan Rush in a pre-season game.

Scigliano, who spearheaded the Maple Ridge Burrards’ run to the Mann Cup Senior A club national championship final last summer, is eligible to play this week and expected to start. Christian Del Bianco, the 19-year-old phenom who led the Coquitlam Adanacs to the Minto Cup Junior A national championship last summer, got his first NLL start in Scigliano’s place against Vancouver and was yanked after 16 minutes.

2. Brendan Fowler, an American field lacrosse stalwart learning the box game, was Vancouver’s faceoff specialist in both the Calgary game and the 15-9 win over the Colorado Mammoth. He has a field lacrosse commitment this weekend, so he’s off the active roster. Jarrett Toll is expected to take his place. Offensive quarterbacks Garrett Billings (groin) and Cory Conway (shoulder) are expected to miss their third consecutive game as well.

3. Calgary sniper Curtis Dickson, a Port Coquitlam native, scored 61 goals last season for the Roughnecks. He had just one, on 18 shots, against the Stealth last week. He’s had success at the LEC in the past, including a five-goal effort in a 14-13 loss last February.

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